Happy Bloomsday, everyone! In what’s becoming a yearly tradition around here, we invite you to celebrate by listening to the vocal stylings of Stephen Colbert in the role of Leopold Bloom, from the 2005 Symphony Space production of “Bloomsday on Broadway”.
Click here for the audio of the Calypso and Lotus Eaters chapters of James Joyce’s Ulysses. As ever, we tip our hats to Truth at ColbertsHeroes for the media.
*sigh*
Thanks for the reminder! :)
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Cool! Thank you for reminding and thanks for the audio!
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Ah, yes!
“Top of the Mornin’” to you all!
And you thought St. Patrick was the only one we ever talked about . . .
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Haha. Are you Irish?
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Here’s more than you ever wanted to know, I bet:
The Gaelic spelling of the name actually is O’Raghallaigh (there are other County Cavan types in Ireland who sometimes spell it “Ui’ Raghailligh,” I believe,” but my family (in this case, through marriage) has always preferred “O’Raghallaigh” and O’REILLY is what the O’Reillys all use today to get the closest approximate pronunciation in English.
An aside: our Border Collie has an Unlimited Listing with the American Kennel Club and is known as Sadie Sioux O’Raghallaigh – nothing like a nice American / Irish sounding name?
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P.S. An inaccuracy above: Sadie Sioux was granted an INDEFINITE LISTING PRIVILEGE (ILP) for rescued dogs with no known sire, dam, or breeder, not what I called it above. This allowed her to participate in agility trials (competitions). It’s been over three years since she’s been to a competition; I simply forgot the listing’s wording, in case some dog lover wants to check this out. Sorry.
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You’re a *real* dog person when you think to correct your AKC listing. Agility trials are incredibly fun to watch.
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Dealing with that “Bill guy” having my name is tough . . .
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Enjoyed the family history…really! So glad we have such an international audience here!
Sorry about having to share your name with Bill:(
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You’re doing just fine. :)
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Iraqi Coin Toss Twitter Challenge
Chance to win one of those cool coins that we have seen pictures of.
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May I just take a moment to remind everyone of this glorious pic of Stephen from Symphony Space from last year? Sigh…
http://www.colbertpics.com/main.php/v/public_appearances/symphonyspace2008/symphonyspace.jpg.html
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Oh, wow! I’d seen the pictures but I didn’t really know the story behind Bloomsday! And I’m Irish too. *facepalm* Anyways, thanks for posting this audio! :)
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Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder! It was nice to listen to those again. And on a similar note, does anyone know where I can download audio of the story “The Lie” that Stephen read a few months ago? I can’t find it on NPR’s site or their podcast.
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You should be able to get “The Lie” from iTunes. Look for PRI’s Selected Shorts podcast. Stephen is in the episode titled “Two Funny Guys.” I highly recommend that you listen to it. Stephen does an amazing job and the story is excellent (and very dark).
Ms I, thanks for the reminder about Bloomsday. I have “Stephen’s” chapters on my iPod. I’ll make sure to listen to them tonight.
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Have you tried subscribing to the Selected Shorts podcast via itunes, symphony space, or the rss feed? Perhaps they will rerun it over the summer. I noticed it only goes back about 5 podcasts or so on itunes and I think it was posted back in January. Maybe this will help.
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Oh wow. Like Mary I’d never known the story behind those photos. That kitty one has always been one of my favorite pictures of him. It was like one of the first awesome pictures of him I had ever come across in a Google search. I remember how much I loved it when I first saw it.
This is sooooo relaxing to listen to. Stephen should do more straight theater. He has a fabulous voice for it. *purrs*
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The podcasts are only up for a relatively brief time on the Selected Shorts site, but a little digging turned up a direct link to the mp3 file. (Use in your favorite podcasting tool, or right-click the link and choose “Save link as”).
Have fun, kids – it’s a hilarious reading!!
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Listening to it again now… Hilarious, yes. But also nuanced, engrossing, lovely, just lovely.
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Awesome, thanks! I listened to “The Lie” probably 5 times when it was first released, but then I got a new computer and I didn’t have the story available.
The story is so freakin’ funny. Stephen’s voice makes it so great.
Thanks again for the download link!
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I just finished listening to Episode 4 (Calypso) from Ulysses by Joyce with Stephen – so good, what a wonderful reading; I’m so impressed -I had no idea.
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Hi — I went to the SS reading Stephen participated in in ’03 and talked to him later for an item in our odds-and-ends column. He was great and I always appreciated it. Kent Gibbons/Multichannel News.
June 22, 2003 http://www.multichannel.com/article/79214-Through_the_Wire.php
Yes, He said Yes, He’s Read Ulysses
When Stephen Colbert, a correspondent for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, and his wife moved to New York in 1993, they missed the last two weeks of a course they were attending in Chicago on reading James Joyce’s Ulysses.
That meant not reading the book’s last two chapters, or episodes. So Colbert was thrilled the following June 16 when he came upon a local radio station’s broadcast of the annual Ulysses reading from New York’s Symphony Space.
“They did those two chapters that year,” Colbert told us last week.
Last Monday — 10 years to the day of that broadcast — Colbert was on stage with more than 40 other actors and performers re-enacting the Cyclops episode on the same stage. Over the years he’s become a big fan of the book (set on June 16, 1904) and of the Symphony Space readings, and, yes, he has finished the book, and enjoys dipping into its “800 pages of poetry” when the mood strikes.
“For me it’s ever unfolding, ever blossoming,” he said.
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